Floating dock.



PATENTED MAR. 29, 190

. H. H. J. DIEGKHOPP.

FLOATING DOCK.

APPLIOATION IILED APR. 12, 1901.

no MODEL.

WITNE6-SE$ ,1 1-1 oRNz: v3

UNIT D STATES Patented March 29, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

FLOATING DOCK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 755,854, dated March29, 1904.

Application filed April 13,1901.

T0 aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HANS Hueo JULIUS DIECKHOFF, a subject of the King ofPrussia, German Emperor, residing at Hamburg, Germany, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Floating Docks,of which thefollowing is a specification.

In the case of floating docks as heretofore constructed the workrequired to raise the loaded dock consists in pumping out two quantitiesof Water, of which the one corresponds to the weight of the ship and theother to the displacement of the portion of the dock to be raised. Thesetwo quantities of water are more or. less equal,according tocircumstances. Now in the case of a floating dock according to thisinvention the work required to raise the dock when the dock is fullyloaded is reduced by about a half, according to the load, and when thedock is not loaded by about ninety-five per cent, such reduction of workbeing effected by suitably dividing the body of the clock, so that aquantity of Water corresponding to the portion 'of the dock tobe raisedcan be automatically discharged.

A floating dock in accordance with this invention is showndiagrammatically in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is aside elevation, and Fig. 2 a section corresponding to the line A B ofFig. 1.

The dock, as usual, comprises a pontoon and side chambers. The pontoonis divided by water-tight bulkheads a into compartments 6, c, and d, ofwhich the middle compartment, 0, constitutes an air-chamber. The sidechambers f are, moreover, separated from the pontoon by water-tightdocks g and are provided in their lowest portions with valves h, whichare moved either automatically or by hand to establish communicationbetween the interior of the side chambers and the surrounding wa ter. Inthe upper parts of the side chambers and separated from the remainderthereof in a water-tight manner there are located cham bers 2', whichserve both to contain the machinery and for storage. Now the air-chamberc of the pontoon is of such dimensions that in conjunction with theparts of the chambers 2' lying below the water-level I I it is able tosupport the weight of the dock. The object of relegating a portion ofthe air-space to z is, on the one hand, to enable the empty dock to beSerial No. 55,751. (No modelfi immersed and, on the other hand, toprevent the dock from sinking below the surface I I.

To immerse the dock, water is allowed to flow into the chambers 72 andd, so that the dock sinks gradually; but the side chambers f also becomeautomatically filled with water through the opening of the valves 72 Thedock is immersed to the level I I. When it is so immersed, thecompartments 6 and d are completely filled with water and the chambers fup to the external water-level, except as regards the chambers 2',which, together with the chamber 0, contain air. To raise the dock withor without a load, water is pumped out of the compartments 6 and d, thevalves h being opened, and the water runs automatically out of the sidechambers f during the raising of the dock. It is easy to compensate forany listthat may occur during the immersion or the raising by suitablyoperating the valve. When the dock has been raised to the level II II,the side chambers f are completely empty, and the chambers b and d arepumped out sufficiently to enable the air-spaces produced in conjunctionwith the air-chamber'c to carry the weight of the dockand the loadthereon. When the dock is empty the airspaces formed in the compartments5 and d by pumping. will therefore be as large as the portions of thechambers a lying below the Surface I I. 4

It is obvious that in the case of this dock, in consequence of thegreatly-reduced quantities of water and the pumping work, the.

pumping machinery requires to be only half as large as has hitherto beenthe case, so that in addition to the saving in working expenses theinitial cost in connection with such a dock is considerably less.

I claim In combination in a floating dock,a pontoon, side chambers,air-chambers in the pontoon, and other air-chambers in the upper part ofthe side chambers, and a water-compartment from which the water may bepumped, substantially as described.

Signed at Hamburg, Germany, this 3d day of April, A. D. 1901.

HANS HUGO JULIUS DIECKHOFI.

Witnesses:

MAX FOUGUET, FRANZ STEFFENS.

